Colossus: How high tech helped defeat the Nazis

We're wowed by the innovations of today: nanotech, six-core chips, flash-drive notebooks. But the tech of yesteryear is awe-inspiring too.

Silicon.com has posted a video and photos of the reconstruction of the world's first electronic code-breaking computer: Colossus. The machine is housed in England's brand-new National Museum of Computing, which in turn is housed in northern England's Bletchley Park, the secret home to Britain's top code-breakers during World War II.

At the end of the war, Winston Churchill ordered the destruction of most of the Colossus machines and their blueprints. Tony Sale, a computer expert and former spy who spent 14 years rebuilding Colossus in his free time, shows off his handiwork and explains how the mighty machine secretly broke German codes. The National Museum of Computing plans to welcome the public to view some of its first displays this weekend.